How many africans can I keep in my 55??

Letsgometsreyes

Letsgometsreyes

Registered pet D-fender
Sep 27, 2006
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Just what the title says. Right now it has sand mixed in with some crushed coral and some tufa rock(about 12 pieces). I will be stacking them up about 1/3 up the tank to make some caves. I got my p.h up to 8 but wil go up a little more when I get the rest of the tufa rock. I want some of the malawi, tanganyikan variety thats why I want the p.h that high. thanx yall.
 
I would personally stick to one lake (malawi or tanganyikan). With Malawians, you could have 4 groups of 4-5 fish each. Not sure about Tangs. :)
 
Tuffa rock will only bring your ph up so far... With the coral and all the rock you have now I dont see your ph going up any further... Also, a ph of 8 is plenty high for africans. I used to try and maintain mine around 8.2 but it costs alot of money in a big tank when your tap water is 7.0. Now with all of my coral and tuffa it stays steady at 7.8
 
slowlyburn said:
Tuffa rock will only bring your ph up so far... With the coral and all the rock you have now I dont see your ph going up any further... Also, a ph of 8 is plenty high for africans. I used to try and maintain mine around 8.2 but it costs alot of money in a big tank when your tap water is 7.0. Now with all of my coral and tuffa it stays steady at 7.8
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my p.h out of tap was like 6.8, with the crushed coral and tuffa rock it went up to 8 and it hasnt budged in a couple days and i havent used any salts or buffers. im giving it another week or so to see if it stays. my kh is good and my ph is always stable and that would give me time to choose what fish i want. i just dont want to overstock my 55
 
How many africans can I keep in my 55??
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in my opinion, two groups of 5 cichlids. a group is a male and four females of the same species ... thus you'll have a total of ten cichlids represent two different species. best if they're different colors .. for example: Labidochromis caeruleus (yellow lab) and some other blue species in the Maylandia (Pseudotropheus) group.

i wouldn't mix Malawi and Tanganyikan cichlids.
 
liv2padl said:
in my opinion, two groups of 5 cichlids. a group is a male and four females of the same species ... thus you'll have a total of ten cichlids represent two different species. best if they're different colors .. for example: Labidochromis caeruleus (yellow lab) and some other blue species in the Maylandia (Pseudotropheus) group.

i wouldn't mix Malawi and Tanganyikan cichlids.
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im not gonna mix i just want to know whats the most i can put in my 55 without it being overstocked. I was thinking yellow labs and demasoni
 
Hmm....you already filled the tank? One thing they always say when planning to keep Africans is that you would want the rocks to be siliconed together to prevent hazardous rock falls from the cichlids digging in the sandbed - which have been known to break glass and cause catastrophes. Not trying to be "that doomsday guy" but you might want to keep it in mind.

I would suggest maybe pseudotropheus "acei" to go with yellow labs. They are about the next step up in aggressiveness and their blue color makes a nice contrast with the yellow.
 
echoofformless said:
Hmm....you already filled the tank?.
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well it used to house my green terrors but there in my 75 but i left a baby jack dempsy and a green sev to keep the cycle going. i added some crushed coral and the tuffa rock to raise the p.h, I didnt want to drain the tank and re-cycle the tank. i did a fishless cycle and it took me like 2 weeks so why go thru that again when i already had a cycled tank, feel me?
 
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